Fish a club tourny, as a guest, at coleto creek this past weekend. Thought that I would come away pretty good as TPW reports had water at 64 and 76 by the discharges. However, things started off bad when my invittee told me that several of the members fished FLW (nonboaters) on the way up from CC. I thought he was kidding.

Fog was so bad to start off the morning that it was hard to tell were you were going and scary to do so if you did. The water was much colder than reported and the warmest that we found topped at about 64, it was in the mid to upper 50's in most of the lake.

Started off the morning fast as my buddy caught a nice 2 lb chunk the first 15 min. on a white chatter bait. I chunked a buzz for about an hr with no luck. We mostly stuck to spinnerbaits, cranks, traps, and a variety of lizzards and creatures; fishing depths of 1 to 6 feet on average (combo of stumps and spotty grass)

We only landed 3 fish the whole day. I landed 2 dinks on a crank and spinner and my buddy had the 1 keeper. At weigh-ins I expected everyone else to have done about the same. Boy was I wrong.

Most of the club members brought 3,4,&5 fish back to the scales. I was at a loss not knowing what they could have done that I didnt. However, I soon found out.

The winners all used the same lures that I was using; traps, spinners, and cranks. They even fished the same type areas and depths. The difference was that they each stcuk with and pounded one of the three mentioned lures all day long. On the other hand, I in a frantic race to land a fish alternated between the three about every 10 casts. Thinking back, I remember listening to KVD say that in tough conditions that you should pick one of these traditional fish catcher and stick with it and you will eventually pick up a few fish to weigh in. This couldnt be more true.

I have always been a trout/red fisherman, since I have lived on Padre Island the last 6 yrs, but I have recently come back to bass fishing and it now peaks my interest more than the salt. I really enjoy tourny fishing and this was a valuable experience and I am eager to get back at it. Going to go to choke canyon this weekend and practice for next month's tourny.